How Congress Can Help Rebuild a Demoralized Intelligence Community

The Iran war exposed how much damage has been done. Turn any article into a podcast. Upgrade now to start listening. Members can share articles with friends & family to bypass the paywall. Young CIA officers soon learn a law when they join the agency: There are only policy successes and intelligence failures. In Iran, the law broke: The warnings were right, but the White House had dismantled the machinery that helps a president weigh warnings and choose among competing U.S. interests. Before the first strikes on Iran on February 28, the Joint Chiefs of Staff warned the president that Tehran could close the Strait of Hormuz, as Pentagon war games had assumed for decades. Want to see more of The Dispatch in Google search? Add Us as a Preferred Source Julia Curlee, a former CIA analyst, was Vice President Mike Pence’s daily intelligence briefer and served on the National Security Council in the Biden and second Trump administrations. She is a public service fellow at Lawfare. More We Think You’d Like